N I H I L S E N T I M E N T A L G I A,
a blog about photography by Sofia Silva
Vito Acconci passed away last Friday, the 28th, at 77. Acconci’s performances were partly responsible for my interest in staged photography, which then developed into an interest in durational performance, again inspired by Acconci, Tehching Hsieh and Marina & Ulay’s performances. When I heard the news about Acconci’s death I remembered something he once said about Marina Abramovic’s retrospective…
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Somehow Max Pinckers‘ work has never excited me much. I though it was too neat, too contrived, too pretty, too arranged, too controlled… After coming across a feature of Magnum Photos Now about Finding Your Documentary Photography Style and reading the words he chose to describe his approach to documentary photography, I went back to some…
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Excerpts of Brendan Cormiers’s essay No Interest in Reality, written for The New Institute’s exhibition, 1:1 Sets for Erwin Olaf and Bekleidung, Nov 11th 2013 – March 30th 2014. Full text here. “In the documentary, On Beauty and Fall, celebrated Dutch photographer Erwin Olaf states that he has no interest in reality. He laments the…
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It’s a given than when writing a statement about your work, you should explain what the process entailed and what you were trying to achieve. But should the artist explain to us what the project is really about? Isn’t that pretentious? © Jamie Diamond, 7.11.11, from the series I Promise To Be a Good Mother.…
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© Giovanni Troilo, J. keeps his gun hidden in a box in the woods of Bois du Cazier. This is more secure than keeping them at home since he regularly gets visits from the police., from the series The Dark Heart of Europe, 2014. © Giovanni Troilo, Gas supply tubes run along the houses built…
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When I first saw Gregory Crewdson’s photographs, roughly 10 years ago, they didn’t appeal to me. Aesthetically, they still don’t. Throughout the years, in classes and other events, there were various encounters with his lynchian universe, but my immediate reactions weren’t changed and beyond my interest in some of the technical issues called forth by…
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© Adad Hannah, Safari #2, from the project Safari, 2011 “Safari is a collaboration between film director Denys Arcand and artist Adad Hannah produced for the exhibition Big Bang, which celebrates the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts’ 150th Anniversary and the opening of a new pavilion. The set for Safari is the Safari Seating Environment…
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© Inês Beja, The Roaring © Inês Beja, Untitled #3, from the series Jumping at Shadows Inês is a chameleon or, as she puts it, a shape-shifter. From my point of view what she is now is a creative force: obsessive, eager to learn, aiming for the perfect tool, the perfect dress, the perfect light,…
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© Xaviera Simmons, One Day and Back Then, 2007 © Xaviera Simmons, Landscape (2 Women), 2007 © Xaviera Simmons, If We Believe In Theory, 2009 “Simmons, as an artist, doubles down. She captures the fiction/truth dialectic as well as anyone, disarticulating assumptions about the quietly composed and staged images she makes. She’s a Brecht of…
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© Gregory Crewdson, Untitled, from the series Beneath the Roses, 2004 “Crewdson’s latest project falls into the tradition of classic American genres that explore the conflation of theater and everyday life. His tableaux, in their fine detail and focus on the perplexing psychology of vernacular America, evoke the paintings of Edward Hopper and the photographs…
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© Edouard Levé, La Blessure, from the series Transferts, 2004 © Edouard Levé, La Dette, from the series Transferts, 2004 “Pas de « remake », toutefois, au sens où le pratique Jeff Wall. Ni même d’interrogation critique des fondements de notre culture sur un mode postmoderniste, à la manière d’une Karen Knorr :…
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© Amy Stein, High Grass, from the series Domesticated, c.2007 © Amy Stein, Watering Hole, from the series Domesticated, c.2007 “My photographs serve as modern dioramas of our new natural history. Within these scenes I explore our paradoxical relationship with the “wild” and how our conflicting impulses continue to evolve and alter the…
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caption (image above): © Philip Dembinski, Reason to Believe, Nothing Just Happens. © Philip Dembinski, Hasty Departure, 2008 © Philip Dembinski, Under The Stars, 2008 More about Philip Dembinski’s work here.
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caption (image above): © Julie Blackmoon, Birthday Girl, from the series Domestic Vacation. © Julie Blackmoon, Saturday, from the series Domestic Vacation, 2005 © Julie Blackmoon, Dinner Party, from the series Domestic Vacation, 2005 “I am the oldest of nine children and now the mother of three. In these photographs, I…
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© Robert Polidori, After the Flood © Jeff Wall, The Destroyed Room (…) Um dos aspectos vulgarmente utilizado para referenciar a fotografia documental é a sua autenticidade. O fotógrafo deve presenciar e experimentar a realidade que recria através do Acto Fotográfico. Mas, de facto, a fotografia nunca é, ela está sempre em lugar de. E…
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N I H I L S E N T I M E N T A L G I A, 